When God Fights For

You
Judges 6 & 7
Delivered during the first Sunday
worship at Tagpuro, Tacloban City
July 4, 2010
 INTRODUCTION
 None of us here are war freaks. None of
us has that warlike attitude that
characterizes those who do not possess
the Spirit of God.
 We don’t like war, especially wars to
perpetuate empires and wars to justify
greed for land, wealth and power.
 In 1914, European nations never wanted
war, but they were dragged into it.
 It began when Austria annexed the
Turkish provinces of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in 1908, spoiling Serbia’s
hopes of getting back those provinces.
 A Serbian nationalist assassinated Austria’s
archduke Francis Ferdinand, who was
visiting Sarajevo, in June 1914.
 Assured of support by Germany, Austria
declared war on Serbia.
 Russia rushed to aid Serbia. Germany
warned Russia to keep out and demobilize its
troops within 12 hours. Not receiving an
answer, Germany declared war on Russia.
 Then assuming that France would help
Russia, Germany also declared war on
France.
 Marching toward France, Germany had to pass
through Belgium. Belgium insisted that its
neutrality be respected, and when Germany did
not, she called on Great Britain.
 Great Britain gave an ultimatum to Germany,
and when Germany insisted on mobilizing its
troops, she too declared war on Germany.
 Many nations didn’t like war, but couldn’t help
being dragged into it.
 In the Second World War, Germany again played
the aggressive role. America didn’t like to get
involved. But Germany went on and declared an
unrestricted submarine warfare and in the
process sank US vessels.
 This occasioned the speech delivered by the US
president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, reflecting
the general sentiment of all Americans. He said:
“I don’t want wa’. Eleano’ don’t want wa’. Polly
[the dog] don’t want wa’. But the Germans want
wa’. Therefo’, wa’.”
 War, in spite of its inherent evil, has its moral
purpose.
 War is God’s way of disciplining unruly
powers, in order that moral justice and divine
design may be achieved in the world.
 War has its leveling purpose too. No nation
today can truly call itself a superpower and
rule the world according to its whims.
 The war of Israel against Canaan and its
neighboring nations achieved the high moral
purpose of God: It was to punish the unruly and
abusive nations. Notice, for example, the
phrase “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet
full” (Genesis 15:16). At the time the war was
waged against them, their sin was full, and the
purpose of the war was to dislodge these
Gentiles. This was God’s war, but God used His
people to wage that war.
 In chapters 6 and 7 of the book of Judges,
the war against the Midianites too was
God’s design.
 That war was one in which the odds were
stacked against Israel. But their warriors
of 300-strong won against 120,000
Midianites. What was the secret of their
victory?
 DISCUSSION
 T for divine Training.
 They who would do battle for God needed
a divine training. Their training consisted
of a series of tests. I call them the Fear
Test and the Water Test. Since this war
would be God’s war, their victory would
not depend on their number but on God
(7:2).
 So the thirty-two thousand volunteer soldiers
were made to undergo the Fear Test. God said
to Gideon: “Proclaim in the ears of the people,
saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him
go home” (7:3). I like that. If one is not
comfortable with being in the army of God,
God would make it easy for him to avoid being
drafted. No one serves God against his will.
The fearful can go, because courage as a
virtue is very necessary in soldiery.
 Twenty-two thousand who were afraid
went home, but ten thousand volunteers
still remained.
 But ten thousand soldiers were still too
many as far as God was concerned (7:4).
The ten thousand volunteers still had to
undergo the Water Test, under God’s
direct supervision. Read Judges 7:4-6.
 Pray tell us, what is the significance of lapping
the water with one’s tongue and kneeling down
to drink? Nothing. But it is God’s way of
choosing the kind of men that should compose
His army.
 And we hear the Lord telling Gideon: “With the
three hundred men that lapped I will deliver
you, and give the Midianites into your hand; and
let all the others go every man to his home”
(7:7).
 R for spiritual Renewal.
They who would fight God’s war needed to be
renewed in spirit. They were idolatrous, and
therefore were punished (6:1-6). Because they
were punished, they cried (6:6).
 Then we see God reminding them of His
goodness in the past, and of their failure to
repay that goodness, and of their not giving
heed to His voice (6:7-10). They were made
to realize where they failed. This is very
important. One is on the road to renewal
when he realizes that he is a sinner.
 Notice also that they cried to the Lord for
help. Renewal starts with the realization
that the answer to our many ills does not
come from within us, but from outside of
us, from Someone above us.
 They realized their need for the divine
refreshing, a refreshing that could come
from God alone.
 Then God began seeking for the man
who was to lead in the deliverance of His
people (6:11-23). Gideon is his name.
 When he was drafted into God’s army, he
was busy devising means to survive.
 His vision had been limited by constant
hunger, by the difficulties of surviving,
and by the fear of the enemy.
 His only challenge in life was to obtain
food for himself and for his own even
though the enemies were making things
impossible.
 They could not sow. The enemy was
making it difficult for them to plant.
 If they could sow, they could hardly
harvest what they had sown.
 And if they could harvest little, they found
it almost impossible to prepare it for food.
 But he was very resourceful. He put a
winepress to double duty by turning it into a
sunken threshing floor, the better to fool the
enemy (6:11).
 His other weakness was his doubtful disposition
(6:13-18). He did not immediately jump to the
task knowing he was ill-prepared. His three
objections—his feelings of responsibility for his
family’s welfare, his doubts about the call itself,
and his feelings of inadequacy for the job—all
had to be overcome (6:12-22, 36-40).
 But after he was convinced, he obeyed
with zest, resourcefulness and speed
(6:25-35). Gideon, the man with more
minuses than pluses in his character, had
undergone a renewal of his soul, his
emotion, his attitude, his whole being
(6:36-40).
 I for Invincibility.
 The three hundred braves (7:7) were
invincible as an army, but that invincibility did
not come from their inherent character.
Besides, they were few in number.
 Notice too that they were not even made to
undergo practical skills training on how to use
the sword, the bow and the arrow, and other
weapons of warfare. In fact they did not even
have weapons of warfare!
 Thisis probably the first time you
heard an army of 300 going to war
against 120,000—armed with nothing
but empty pitchers, torches, and
trumpets! This really amazes me.
 But then I realize that if they had
weapons, and if they did train on the use
of these weapons, and if they won, they
would have attributed that victory to their
skills and their weapons. God skipped
skills training! God skipped weapons! He
wanted His people to rely on Him alone
for their victory in war.
 Notice too the divine strategy that won this war
for God. Firstly, they had the assurance of God
that they would win (6:16; 7:7; 7:9).
 They had the advantage of location, for the
enemy was below them (7:8). Then they had
the darkness of the night to cover them (7:9).
 They had spies, the better to familiarize
themselves with the enemy territory, and to
know their enemies’ weaknesses and strengths
(7:10-15). They also employed the element of
surprise (7:19-21).
 The three hundred braves, divided into
three companies, positioned themselves
in three directions surrounding the
Midianite camp.
 And to the blaring of 300 trumpets and
the breaking of 300 pitchers, and the
raising of 300 burning torches, they
shouted their terrible war cry, “For the
Lord and for Gideon!”
 When the 300 rushed as one into the enemy
camp, pandemonium broke loose. The Midianite
soldiers, terror-stricken and in great panic, and
perhaps because of the darkness, stabbed and
killed each other (7:22)! The Israelites did
nothing but to keep making noise and to pursue
the enemy. The Midianite army almost
decimated their own troops, leaving only 15,000
to escape. Brethren, this is a war that finds no
comparison in all history of wars ancient and
modern. God’s Three-Hundred is invincible
because God Himself is invincible.
 U for the Unconditionality of their
surrender to God
 God called them to wage a war for Him.
Did they know the prospect that
awaited them? They were fighting an
enemy whose cruelty and rapacity knew
no bounds, whose mobility knew no
comparison, whose number was by the
thousands (6:3-6).
 But when they were called for
enlistment, the volunteers rallied to the
side of God (7:34-35). They never
complained nor asked any questions.
They never set any conditions for
enlistment, for it was God who set the
conditions (7:2, 7, 8, 9, 10). This is
surrender of one’s wish and will for God’s
wish and will, knowing perhaps that in
doing so, they would win the battle.
 M for their Militancy
 During this period of their history, the
people of Israel were worshipping both
Baal (the Phoenician male god) and
Asherah (the sensual Canaanitish goddess
who was also known as Astarte or
Astaroth), bowing to them, genuflecting to
them with as much devotion as any
Canaanite or Phoenician devotees did.
 Doyou find it rather strange that
God’s people had been worshipping
the gods and goddesses of their
enemies, the “father idols” and
“mother idols” they did not know
much about?
 When God commissioned him to undertake the
task of delivering His people from their enemies,
Gideon started in his family backyard.
 With ten of his servants, he overthrew the
idolatrous altar Joash his father had built, the
altar of Baal, and cut down the Asherah which
was upon it. Gideon destroyed both the “father
god” and the “mother goddess” in his
hometown! Then he laid down an altar for God
on top of Baal’s altar, slaughtered his father’s
bull and offered it on God’s altar using the cut
Asherah for firewood.
 That’s a brilliant way of bringing the
lesson home, and a militant way of doing
righteousness! But he did it because the
God of heaven could not countenance,
could not tolerate, idolatry in His own
universe.
 What can you say about the army of God?
They were endowed with a high sense of
purpose, and that is to win with God’s
help. Even the fearful among them
volunteered, although at the last minute
they had to be turned down. Did the
three hundred braves who remained know
what they were getting into?
 They were fighting a bloody war with the
odds stacked against them, with their
number so few and with weapons none!
 In the end, the war was won, but it was
won not because of numbers, not
because of weapons of arms, but
because God fought it for them.
 .
 P for the Perfecting of their Trust in
God.
 It was God who set the directions on how the
battle should be fought: (1) in the number of
soldiers who would go to the battlefield (7:7);
(2) in the manner of fighting the war (in the
blowing of trumpets, in the breaking of
pitchers, in the raising of the torches, in the
crying shouts). This was God’s way then.
This is not the way modern men wage
modern wars.
 It was God who would do the saving,
and they were just instruments (7:2).
They did what God wanted, perfectly
trusting Him because He who waged this
war also knew how to win it.
 H for the Harmony of their Goals with
God’s Goals.
 God wanted them to conquer evil in the
world, and they did. That evil in the world
was the Midianites.
 God wanted them to learn obedience, and
they did. Had they insisted on their own
styles, on their own ways or techniques, they
could not have won that war.
 CONCLUSION
 What is man’s secret for winning a war?
Gen. George Patton has it. He says: “The
way to win the war is not to die for your
country; it is to make the other bastard
die for his country.” Man’s formula for
victorious warfare is to kill in great
numbers, to decimate the enemy
population if necessary.
 Christians still wage wars, and the goal is
still the same: It is to win. But some
things have changed. The sphere of the
war has changed: It has become spiritual.
The battlefield has changed: It is where
sin has abound. The enemy too has
changed: It is no longer a war against
your fellowman but against the devil and
his cohorts.
 What can we say about the techniques
and the standard operating procedures for
making soldiers for God?
 Firstly, The need for divine Training.
Letter T. In the war against evil, the
number of soldiers are immaterial—300,
30, or 3. God enlists and trains quality
soldiers and their number may be small.
 Second, The enlisted soldiers of God
must undergo a divine renewal. Letter R.
They cannot do battle against sin if they
too are living in sin.
 Third, The enlisted soldier of God must
possess the spirit of invincibility. Letter I.
Invincibility is the predisposition to win,
not to be self-defeated, not to give up.
 Fourth, The enlisted solder in the army of
God must unconditionally surrender his life to
God. Letter U. “Unconditional” means
“everything and without conditions” from us.
God alone sets the conditions.
 Fifth, The enlisted soldier of God must have
the attitude of militancy. Letter M. This
means he gets ready for battle anytime,
every time, at all times. This means being
vigilant against sin.
 Sixth, The enlisted soldier of God must have
perfect trust in his commander-in-chief, God
himself. Letter P. In the war against the spirits,
it is He who wages the war for us.
 Lastly, the goals of the enlisted soldier of God
and that of God himself must be in harmony.
Letter H. If we have the servant attitude, there
is no difficulty of putting our goals in
subservience to that of God’s, in order that
harmony may be achieved.
 And if you have noticed, the acronym
spells T-R-I-U-M-P-H.